Weekly Dev Diary #7 - Silk Road and Raiding Adventurers

[Silfae]

Another great set of features.
I would like to ask though, what determines the range of the Nomads who lost their lands and the Raiding Mercenaries? I mean, if they have no demesne, how is their diplomatic range calculated? Where do they spawn their troops?

 

[Silfae]

So does this mean if I lose my last county as a Germanic then I can become an adventurer?

Does this also mean adventurers are playable now?

What about non-Germanic and non-nomad adventurers?

Yes, but even further, where *are* adventurers and landless nomads? Can one interact/plot against them from every corner on the globe? Where do they spawn their troops?

 

[Groogy]

This looks great but is there no interaction at all with Merchant Republics? Like no special value to a MR trade zone that connects to the Silk Road?

Yes there is but it's already granted by mechanics that are already in the game which is why we decided to make trade routes rely on the same trade zone system as merchsn republics use

 

[Groogy]

Will it be possible to "divert" the Silk Road?
If you have a province adjacent to it, you could spend a hefty bit of gold to have a branch flow to you as well.

You can't divert it to new provinces no but you can divert the amount of trade.

 

[Groogy]

I would very much like to see players being able to become raiding adventurers.

I want it to be possible and we've talked a big deal about the whole "carve your own realm" mentality that everyone has. But it is a lot of technical stuff that has to be solved first. If you look at CK2 it's the most dynamic game we have and it is straining the core of the game.

 

[Groogy]

Are the locations of the Silk Road moddable? Just wondering if full conversion mods could make use of it.

Of course, you can even make as many routes as you want and apply whatever modifier you want individually.

 

[Groogy]

Groogy, I tried asking this question last week but it seems to have gotten buried. What exactly are the conditions for one other

Lose a war where tributary status is the end effect.

 

[Groogy]

Do they even mention if upgrading the Silk Road will carry value further downstream, like the trade notes do in EU4. Otherwise i can't see how it's introduction is a buff to any of the powers in the Middle East or Europe. Then it's just gonna be a buff to the local powers in Central Asia

Yes we do I think either way yes you can improve the route directly

 

[Groogy]

One thing. The Silk Road is missing the portion that went through Tabriz and ended in Trebizond, and there should be a branch from Antioch that goes into Constantinople and then Rome.

Technically there should be about a hundred branches of the route. We are not gonna represent every single of them. If you want that obscure unimportant detail, add it as a mod.

 

[Groogy]

Love all the ideas here but I have 2 questions. Firstly will the mongols have an event/decision which improves the lucrativity of the silk road by reestablishing it in the east?

They never reestablished it. They strengthed the security along it. Very different from what you are implying. Anyway doing that is possible as anyone, not a specific decision for Mongols.

 

[Groogy]

Sieges

 

[Silfae]

They will spawn their troops in their last held province and use the location of their units to determine range.

Thanks for the answer.
Another thing, although less important, will the former province also be counted for when they disband their levies (to see if all troops return "home") and for calculating attrition?

 

[Silfae]

We have unfortunately not added any mod support for playing as landless characters, adventurers included.

Sorry, I'm a little confused, didn't Doomdark state in the first Horse Lords Dev Diary that Nomads can indeed be playable landless under certain circumstances? Unless I read this wrong:

Should a horde lose its last province, the tribe will still exist, and may use its remaining armies to conquer another land in which to settle.

 

[Silfae]

From what I get from dev responses, AI characters will go landless (like adventurers) instead of becoming courtiers from someone else. For characters, I guess if you loss your last land you jump to playing your heir if he is landless, or else you get a Game Over.

That'd be a little sad, but from what I've read in the first Horse Lord diary, taking aside the Adventurers, the Khagan himself seemed like he would continue to be in charge even after being made landless, as long as he still had troops, so it gave me the idea that, as a nomad, you'd still have no game over in that circumstance and could still continue to play to gain land back, as a landless character.

 

[Silfae]

There isn't really any way for us to tell unless a Dev admits that. We can hope but there is no guarantee that it will ever happen

Well if the conditions to build the Silk Road posts can be modded, one could set up new minor roads in the other regions and mod in a custom government to somewhat represent an inland republic, I suppose.

 

[Groogy]

So can we give normal mercenaries/sellswords feudal titles now?

No